Today we are receiving news after news. After the hopeful information from SA Tourism earlier today I can now share even better news with you!

South Africa’s tourism private-sector, under the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), have been engaging on the Tourism Recovery Strategy currently being developed by South African Tourism. TBCSA is advocating unequivocally for the earlier phased reopening of international tourism to South Africa this year to as soon as September 2020.

This data-driven recovery strategy has been presented to relevant government authorities and is guided by government’s risk-adjustment strategy as well as the preparation that the tourism industry has put in place to ensure safety and stringent health-focussed protocols to guide and assist stakeholders within the travel and tourism value-chain including staff, travellers and guests. The TBCSA will also be presenting the approach at the next Parliamentary Portfolio Committee meeting on 9 June 2020.

“South Africa is following a Risk-Adjusted Strategy based on levels of lockdown, not dates. These levels are defined according to relevant epidemiologic facts – parts of the travel and tourism sector have been earmarked for return in Levels 2 and 1, depending on their risk profile and the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa. However, we have already seen the inclusion of business travel in Level 3 as a result of successful lobbying for earlier reopening of this critical sector and we are confident that we are in a position to reopen inbound market in a safe and health-focussed manner at least in September.” said Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO TBCSA.

The top five are diabetes, hypertension, HIV, obesity and asthma/chronic respiratory disease. This was part of an exhaustive 68-page presentation to the first citizen by the Western Cape government on Friday.

But it was not just single illnesses to which Covid-19-infected succumbed: A full 65% of the patients cited had more than one comorbidity. And two out of five had three or more.

On 4 June, Cabinet announced its decision to extend the State of Disaster by one month to 15 July. The extension was gazetted on 5 June.